


Reach

by ArcticLucie



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, Ficlet, Haunted Houses, M/M, My sorry excuse for a Halloween fic, Plot Twists, Post ME3, Suspense, Thriller, crazy!Kaidan, ghost!Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-29 04:38:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5115992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticLucie/pseuds/ArcticLucie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard wakes Kaidan in the middle of the night to investigate a strange sound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reach

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be much more Halloween-ish, but I had such trouble trying to make Shepard a pirate. I tried three different times, but it wasn't meant to be. So have this instead... _*runs away*_

Kaidan was a heavy sleeper. As soon as his eyelids closed, it was as if they were stitched shut and nothing short of a good eight hours of sleep could rouse him from his slumber. The meds he'd been subscribed after the war ended two years prior exacerbated the fact that it took a stampeding marching band to pull him back up once he went under. But some nights were a little different. 

Some nights, all it took to wake him was a gentle hand on his shoulder. 

And some nights, that gentle hand was accompanied by a harsh whisper in his ear. 

“K, I think someone’s in the house.”

He gasped as he bolted straight up in bed, his body aglow in a shimmering blue cocoon as his biotics flickered, the smell of ozone replacing the usual fragrance of coffee he was accustomed to waking up to. When he reached a blind hand under his pillow for the gun he’d spent years sleeping with, he came up empty. He had no choice but to sleep without it now, but it was instinct, muscle memory, to reach. He was a Marine through and through, though; he didn’t need metal or fire power to be lethal. 

“Did you hear that?” Shepard asked from beside him. 

Kaidan shook his head and got his biotics under control. He threw off the covers and climbed out of bed, sliding feet into flimsy slippers and his arms into the light robe he’d tossed on a nearby chair the night before. He felt Shepard following him to the door as he tied the belt around him to secure the robe in place. With an ear pressed to knotted oak, he waited….

Silence, nothing but the sound of blood rushing through his veins and shallow breaths. 

“I don’t hear anything,” Kaidan said, but just as soon as he spoke, a thud sounded from what had to be downstairs. “Okay _that_ I heard.” He went for the knob and gave it a twist, pulling it open just enough so that he could peak out into the darkened hallway. 

Silence…then another thud. But that could’ve been his heart beating a wild cadence on his ribcage.

“Do you want me to go first?” Shepard asked.

“No, I got it.”

Kaidan took a few deep breaths then stepped out into the hall, comforted by the feel of John’s warm presences behind him and armed only with his weakened biotics thanks to the fact he was not wearing an amp. He wasn’t worried; they were both masters at hand-to-hand combat. With Shepard was the only time he ever felt safe. 

They proceeded down the hall to the staircase where Kaidan took a careful look over the banister to survey what he could of the first floor. It was dark, but the bulbs from outside cast just enough light through the windows for him to make out the furnishings. There were no signs of life until the thud came once more from a far window. Whoever was out there hadn’t made it in yet. He shot a look to Shepard and received a silent nod of support to continue.

He felt Shepard’s hand on his back as they started down the stairs, and he relished the contact. His adrenaline was pumping, but Shepard always had a way a calming his nerves whether they were on the battlefield or in the bedroom. There wasn’t a day that went by since they met that he didn’t draw upon the strength the man instilled in him and in everyone they knew to get him through the worst of things. That was just who Shepard was, an eternal refuge from all his fears and doubts, and Kaidan didn’t know what he’d ever do without him. 

As if to remind him of the task at hand, he heard the mysterious sound again, but as they drew closer to the window, it became clear by the shadows dancing on the glass that it was just a tree limb grating against the outside wall. 

“Well don’t I feel like an idiot,” Shepard said, a raspy laugh accompanying his admission and doing wonders to mask his embarrassment. “The Great Commander Shepard frightened by the wind.”

Kaidan found it all too endearing. “Your secret’s safe with me, babe…you know, there are benefits to being woken up in the middle of the night by intruding trees.”

Shepard’s playful smile turned sultry in a flash, his voice a syrupy melody, “What kind of benefits, Major?”

Just as Kaidan was about to reach for him to give him a demonstration, they were interrupted. “Mr. Alenko, what are you doing out of your room at this hour?” 

“Shepard heard a noise,” he replied, turning around to find a nurse barreling towards him. He looked back to where Shepard had been, but his lover was nowhere to be found. Kaidan’s eyes darted around the room in search of him before reality exploded in him like a fucking frag grenade ripping through his chest. His heart began to ache and his stomach churned as acid bubbled up into his throat.

The nurse let out a heavy sigh, “Another rough night, I see…let’s get you back to bed.” Kaidan stayed silent, numb, as she took his arm and began to lead him back upstairs to where the patients slept. “I told the doctors you weren’t quite ready to sleep without restraints.”

**Author's Note:**

> Plot twist anyone? This was my Halloween fic hence the dirty trick of not warning for anything (sorry, not sorry) and while it wasn't anything that I had originally envisioned, it was fun to write, minus that one time at the end I got misty-eyed because I'm a monster!


End file.
